Expansion of the Divine Name in Old Greek Isaiah

Yesterday we looked at the simplification of divine name אדני יהוה “Lord HaShem” in  Isaiah 61:1 MT to  κύριος “Lord” in Isaiah LXX which which is the form we see in Jesus reading of Isaiah in Luke 4:18. I noted that the LXX/Luke 4:18 reading appears to be supported by the Great Isaiah Scroll 1QIsa-a. But after looking at a lot of evidence, I was skeptical about attributing this to a difference in the Hebrew manuscript (vorlage) used by the translator(s) of Isaiah. Today I followed up by looking at places where Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) reads יהוה “HaShem” alone but Isaiah LXX expands the divine name to read κύριος ὁ θεὸς [1] “The Lord God.” I checked the notes in E. Tov’s MT/LXX to see if any of these readings were supported by Great Isaiah Scroll 1QIsa-a. The results were negative. Not a single one of them was supported by the 1QIsa-a.

I found an old critical text, translation and commentary on Isaiah LXX [2] available on the web. Looking through the notes and introduction I found only one reference to this variation, where R. Ottley simply stated that  Isaiah LXX added ὁ θεὸς. In the introduction R. Ottley made a general reference to naming variations which he considered too common and too self-evident to warrant special mention:

LXX. often present proper names in different forms from the Hebrew, and with wide variations among the MSS. These differences are passed by without comment, unless required for some special reason, e.g. where it seems probable that a different name altogether from the Hebrew is intended.

— R. Ottley Vol. 2 Page 136.          

The lack of support in 1QIsa-a for the LXX expansion of יהוה “HaShem” in the Masoretic Text to κύριος ὁ θεὸς  “The Lord God” increases my previous skepticism about a different Hebrew vorlage being responsible for differences in divine names. It seems more likely that the variations in the divine names are nothing more the peculiar habits of the translator.


[1] Is. 26:12, Is. 28:13, Is. 38:22, Is. 41:17, Is. 41:21, Is. 42:6, Is. 42:8, Is. 42:13, Is. 42:21, Is. 43:1, Is. 43:10, Is. 43:12, Is. 43:14, Is. 43:15, Is. 44:2, Is. 45:1, Is. 45:3, Is. 45:5, Is. 45:6, Is. 45:7, Is. 45:11, Is. 52:12, Is. 57:21.

[2] Ottley, Richard R. The Book of Isaiah according to the Septuagint (Codex Alexandrinus). 2 vols. Cambridge: University Press, 1904–1906. Note: This .pdf is almost 60meg.

Full title from title page:

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, (CODEX ALEXANDRINUS), TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY, I. INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION, WITH A PARALLEL VERSION, FROM THE HEBREW, LONDON :, C. J. Clay and Sons, Cambridge University Press Warehouse, ACCORDING TO THE, S E P T U A G I N T, R. R. O T T L E Y , M.A., Ave Maria Lane, 1904.